NOTORIOUSLY poor signage at Griffith's Hermit's Cave complex is about to be replaced giving tourists a better opportunity to experience the full glory of the heritage-listed site.
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After many years of complaints from visitors who have not been able to find the cave, its outbuildings or the terraced gardens created by hermit Valerio Ricetti, council will use a $25,000 grant from Destination NSW and Riverina Regional Tourism to install new signs.
There are few directional signs at the site and those which do exist are confusing including one reading "Hermit's Cave" that points left, while just 200 metres to the right is a cave adorned with a sign announcing "main cave".
There is also a series of numbers stuck to rocks but no explanation of what they represent.
Griffith Community Development Council president Carmel La Rocca, who helped put together a plan for the Hermit's Cave almost 10 years ago, said the signs would need to incorporate the history of the precinct.
"It has historical as well as cultural significance and the community obviously feels it is important," Mrs La Rocca said.
"It should be more than just patch-up signage, we've got to get to the heart of the story and get some information out here for people.
"If we could fix it up including making it a bit safer out here the schools could come out here and we could educate the students about their own backyard."
Mrs La Rocca said a management plan was desperately needed to ensure the area continued to be maintained.
Victorian tourist Christy-Lee O'Brien, who was in Griffith with her young family for the long weekend, said she had trouble finding the location of the site from the road as well as working out where to go once they were amongst the caves.
"We saw number one and number two but there were no reference points to the numbers so we had no idea what we were looking at," Mrs O'Brien said.
"We were trying to explain to the kids what they were looking at, but it's a bit hard when we didn't know."
The new signage is expected to be installed within three weeks.
It will include a large sign at the lookout to explain the history of the precinct to visitors and indicate the distances and directions of each of the features.
"Signage has always been an issue we don't want people to have to rely on a GPS to find their way around one of our most precious tourist attractions," council economic development and tourism manager Greg Lawrence said.
Mr Lawrence said the money would also be used to resurface the car park at the lookout, replace the old picnic tables and fix the handrail beside the stairs.